Abstract
The objective of this chapter is to analyze the Peircean notion of instinct and its relationship with abductive reasoning in the context of the reflection elaborated by Peirce concerning the nature of information. To this end, the work will be divided into three parts. In the first, we shall present the Peircean concept of abductive reasoning, emphasizing those passages where Peirce mentions instinct as an anchor for this type of reasoning. Special attention will be given to passages of the treatise An Essay Toward Improving Our Reasoning in Security and in Uberty (1913), in which Peirce in maturity discusses the nature of instinct. In the second part, the Peircean concept of information and its relation with sign is presented, focusing on Peirce’s characterization of sign as a vehicle for the communication of form. Finally, in the third part we propose a reading of the Peircean concept of instinct based on his reflection on the concepts of abduction and information. Our working hypothesis is that the Peircean concept of information could help to clarify not only the notion of instinct, but also the role of instinct in abductive reasoning.
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Notes
- 1.
EP2:463–474.
- 2.
Cf.EP2:217–218.
- 3.
Gonzalez et al. 2007.
- 4.
MS 660. NEM III.1:214.
- 5.
MS 660. NEM III.1: 214.
- 6.
L231. NEM III.1: 203–204.
- 7.
MS 682. EP2:463–474.
- 8.
Peirce Edition Project (1998).
- 9.
EP 2:133–241.
- 10.
Peirce was probably one of the first among Western philosophers to develop a very detailed analysis of the ontological, epistemological, and logical nature of information. For the purposes of the present investigation, only two of his perspectives on information are presented.
- 11.
Cf. W1: 275–279.
- 12.
MS 107. W1: 286–287.
- 13.
CP 2.418–426.
- 14.
Cf. CP 2. 418–419.
- 15.
CP 2.309–315.
- 16.
CP 2.312.
- 17.
CP 2.314.
- 18.
MS 793:2. EP2:544 n.22.
- 19.
EP2:477.
- 20.
See pages 91–92 of this volume for a full quotation on Peirce's view of the being of a form as the truth of a conditional proposition.
- 21.
Idem, ibidem.
- 22.
CP 4.530–571.
- 23.
CP 4.550–551.
- 24.
CP 2.227.
- 25.
CP 5.173.
- 26.
From the complex system perspective, as pointed out by Merrell, in the study of life no level of information is necessarily more fundamental than any other, given that all levels are dependent on others in this rich, multilayer, interacting system.
- 27.
The attribution of an Umwelt and an Innenwelt to all the animals is present in work of Jacob Uexkull, 1936 as can be by the homonymous title of one of his first writings.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Vinicius Romanini, Mariana Claudia Broens, and José Artur Quilici Gonzalez for their valuable comments on previous versions of this chapter. The work was sponsored by UNESP, CNPq, and Fapesp. Finally, we thank our colleagues from GAEC and CLE for their inspirational research activities.
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Barbosa da Silveira, L., Gonzalez, M. (2014). Instinct and Abduction in the Peircean Informational Perspective: Contributions to Biosemiotics. In: Romanini, V., Fernández, E. (eds) Peirce and Biosemiotics. Biosemiotics, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7732-3_8
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